ABSTRACT
Differences between individuals or between groups of individuals are not only normal but also unavoidable phenomena in the biological world. But only within the human species do we find, from the dawn of history on, inequalities of a different nature—social inequalities which have little, if anything, to do with the biological differences. As the earliest social philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, observed, these differences are the source of social upheavals, a point confirmed with perfect regularity by history. Social conflicts of all times have hinged on the economic inequality between social classes, yes, even when the battle cry contained no overtly economic slogans. Other species—the termites, the ants and the bees, as common instances—live in society, but, curiously, are free from any social conflict.
